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Friday, April 11, 2014

What We Ate - April 11

Hello! I've been thinking about this blog and that I want to mix things up a bit around here. This has mainly been a space where I share my scrapbook layouts and I still plan to do that. But there are so many other things I also love in my life and want to share more about other things too.

One thing that is important to me is weekly meal planning. No plan equals poor food choices, grumpiness and a bit of stress around our place. So I do my best each Monday to plan and shop for our meals for the week.

I try to keep things easy on myself and only plan and buy for four dinners. Of course, we buy things for breakfast and lunch too, but those are pretty much the same every week (English muffins, cereal, apples, bananas, strawberries, sandwich stuff) so the main planning is for our dinners. We get together with our extended family on Sunday and I just usually make one thing for that meal. Friday and Saturday nights are generally no cooking nights and we go out, do takeout or get together with friends. So that leaves planning out Monday - Thursday.

Something I'd like to add here on the blog is a "What We Ate" post each Friday to share what meals we've had during the week. I'm always looking for new dinner ideas and I hope sharing our plans might help you out with your meal planning.

I picked up both of these things at Trader's Joe's. Love that place. Their salads are really delicious and are filled with a great variety of items. I seriously couldn't put a salad like these together for less than $4, so I pick them up pretty often. The butternut squash plus quinoa is my favorite.

Okay, I admit, this isn't the fanciest dinner. But it was fast to prepare and almost everyone in our house ate it without complaint. My kids like to drizzle a little olive oil + balsamic vinegar on their ravioli. I prefer a quick sauce that I whip up:

Sauté some diced garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes and then toss in a couple handfuls of spinach and a can of diced tomatoes (juice goes in the pan too) and some pepper to taste. Mix around for a couple of minutes and let the spinach wilt. If you are feeling decadent, pour in a splash of whipping cream. You won't be sorry.

At the request of Ward, this is what we had for dinner on Tuesday. I could be most favorite comfort food meal. They got the name "dad's enchiladas" because they are named after my dad since he made them for our family when we were growing up. He still makes them for us from time to time even now. He didn't do a lot of cooking, but he did make these fabulous enchiladas.

Just mix the ground beef plus the ground sausage together in a bowl. Then roll the meat into golfball sized pieces and put them in a crockpot. No seasonings needed for mixing into the meat because the sauce adds the perfect amount of flavor after simmering with the meat all day. Pour a jar of marinara sauce over the meatballs and turn on the crockpot to low for 8 hours.

We served the meatballs on toasted rolls and added a slice of smoked gouda cheese. Everyone must have liked it because we didn't even have one leftover meatball.

Okay, there's a looks at "What We Ate" this week. What do you think? Do you like see what other people are making for dinner? Do you plan meals out or just take it a night at a time?